My Nannie, O

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears Sandy moaning about Nannie. The young men envy him. His father recommends he marry a laird's daughter. Sandy says, "I would marry the laird's dochter I would die for my Nannie" He'd rather have Nannie "than Jenny wi' ten thousand mark"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1697 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson a.57(24c))
KEYWORDS: courting love sex money father cards
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 919, "Some Delights in Cards and Dice" (3 fragments, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #106 pp. 247-248,328, "(As I Came in by Edinburgh Town)" [Not yet indexed as Hecht-Herd 106]
James Hogg and William Motherwell, editors, The Works of Robert Burns (Glasgow, 1841 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 94-96, ("As I gaed doun thro' Embro toun") (1 text)
Roud #6242
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson a.57(24c)[many illegible words], "The Scotch Wooing of Willy and Nanny" ("As I went forth one morning fair"), P. Brooksby (London), 1672-1696; also Douce Ballads 2(194a) [many illegible words], "The Scotch Wooing of Willy and Nanny"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sunday Night" (some lines)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nannie O
NOTES [440 words]: The Greig/Duncan4 fragments are all a verse and chorus or less. The differences among the three are primarily the name of the girl: Nannie, Sandy, or Mary. The Nannie version begins "Some delights in cards and dice, And some delights in brandy O, Some delights in a red red rose, The colour o' my Nannie O." Here is the corresponding verse in "Willy and Nanny": "Some takes delight in cards and dice and other some in dancing O, But I take delight in a bonny lass and her name is called Nanny O."
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame points out that Ramsay "wrote a more sophisticated version" of this fragment: "While some for pleasure pawn their health, 'Twixt Lais and the Bagnio, I'll save myself, and without stealth, Kiss and caress my Nanny - O... I care not though the world know How dearly I love Nanny - O" (source: Allan Ramsay, The Poems of Allan Ramsay (London, 1800 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, 23, pp. 151-152, "Nanny O").
Hogg and Motherwell: "We are indebted to that indefatigable collector of our Scottish Minstrelsy, Mr. Peter Buchan, for the following copy of the elder lyric, which probably awakened the muse of both Ramsay and Burns."
The two Bodleian broadsides are different issues by the same printer. Between them I can see most of the ten verses and chorus. The Buchan text of seven verses and a chorus shares most of four verses and the chorus with the broadsides. The description follows Buchan. Of the shared texts the following are connections to the Greig/Duncan4 fragments "Some Delights in Cards and Dice" ["Some delight in cards and dice, And other some in brandy, O, But my delight's in a bonnie lass, Her name is lovely Nannie, O"], and "Sunday Night" ["Nae friend nor foe shall ever know, The love I bear to Nannie, O"].
See also Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(2b), "An Answer to Nanny O" or "The Happy Agreement between the two Scotch lovers, Willy & Nancy" ("Art thou so loyal to thy love"), P. Brooksby(London), 1672-1696, an answer to Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(194a).
The Greig/Duncan4 fragment reminds me of the fragments of "The Golden Vanity" and its parodies: "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice" (see references for "Louisiana Lowlands). A phrase containing "cards" and "dice" is also in "The Rantin' Laddie" (the singer says "Aften hae I playd at the cards and the dice, For the love of a bonie rantin laddie") and "The Sorrowful Maiden" (whose father "was so rash in his Spending ... At Cards and Dice"). Another reference is in the 1703 broadside "The Banishment of Poverty" ("I dought nor dance to pipe or harp, I had no stock for Cards and Dice")(source: NLScotland, APS.4.94.22). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4919

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